Gusseted bags with a tab

ABSTRACT

Bags having gussets and tabs, including self-opening bags in a stack, are disclosed in which one or more gussets extend into the tab.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/800,337, filed Mar. 15, 2013, which is hereby incorporated by referenced in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Many commercial establishments, such as retail stores, as well as consumers use bags for transporting articles such as groceries and other items. The present invention is directed to a novel embodiments of bags.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a bag comprising two exterior faces, an open mouth end defined by the exterior faces, a sealed bottom end joining the exterior faces, at least one gusset extending between the mouth end and the sealed bottom end, and at least one tab located in a tab region at the mouth end, wherein at least one gusset extends into the tab region.

The present invention is for novel bags as more fully set forth herein.

The present invention may be better understood by reference to the description and figures that follow. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the specific details as set forth in the following description and figures. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention are better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is a front view of bag embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B is an end view of the bag shown in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2 is an end view of a bag embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is an end view of a bag embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation, not limitation, of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope and spirit thereof. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment may be used on another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

The use of reference characters with the same two ending digits as other reference characters to indicate structure in the present specification and drawings, without a specific discussion of such structure, is intended to represent the same or analogous structure in different embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 1A, bag 100, which is illustrated as a t-shirt-type bag, is shown. As illustrated, bag 100 has an open mouth end 102 and a sealed bottom end 104 at opposing longitudinal ends. In some embodiments, sealed bottom end 104 may be formed by a heat seal. Bag 100 also includes faces 106 (with a front face shown and a re face, not shown, on the rear side of the bag). Bag 100 also has laterally-spaced, upwardly extending handle portions 108. Each handle portion 108 may include an aperture portion 110 for mounting a bag or a stack of bags on a dispensing rack system. In addition, bag 100 may include a detachable central tab 114. which may have a slit or aperture 112 for mounting the hag on a dispensing rack system. As shown, aperture 113 permits separation of a bag from central tab 114, although in other embodiments a perforated, or scored, line may be used. In some alternative embodiments, the tab may be integral to and not detachable from bag 100. As shown in FIG. 1A, bag 100 also includes gussets 116, which have an inner gusset point 116. Bag 100 is shown in a closed configuration in which the bag is not opened, i.e., front and rear faces 106 are back-to-back and the gussets are not open.

As shown in the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B, bag 100 has four plies (or layers) of film in the gusseted regions and only two plies (or layers) of film in the region between the gusseted portions. However, in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, gussets 116 extend within the center of bag 100 such that portions of each gusset 116 are disposed within central tab 114. As a result, the outer portions of central tab 112 have four plies and the inner portion of central tab 114 (between gussets 116) has two plies. In some embodiments, gussets may meet at the middle point of a central tab such that the central tab substantially has the same number of plies throughout.

In some embodiments of the present invention, gussets may overlap. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, gussets 216 may overlap such that the entire bag, including the entire tab, has greater than two plies. In addition, a central tab for this bag (which is not visible from the end view but is located within the region indicated as A) has two outer portions with four flies and a central portion with six plies. In other embodiments, gussets may overlap within only a portion of a central tab, such as shown in FIG. 3, wherein the central tab (represented within region A) has two portions with four plies and one portion with six plies.

The present invention may advantageously improve dispensing of bags from a bag stack. In particular, in some bag stacks, it may be desirable for the removal of a bag in the stack to adhere to the front (i.e., the first ply) of the subsequent bag in the stack so as to open the subsequent bag without removing the entire subsequent bag, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,788 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,811, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. By utilizing embodiments of the present invention, a bag having gussets extending into the tab region may have more plies connected with a tab as compared with a bag in which the gussets do not extend within a tab region. Because more plies are connected to the tab in certain embodiments of the present invention, such a bag may be more secured to the tab and less likely to be entirely removed from the stack upon the removal of a preceding bag in the stack. In that regard, after the front face of a bag has been pulled open and detached from the tab after removal of the preceding bag in a stack, a bag in which the gussets do not extend into the tab region would only remain affixed to the tab by a single ply of the back face of the bag. By contrast, using some embodiments of the present invention in such circumstances, the bag may remain attached to a tab by attachment with multiple layers in view of the additional layers in the tab region from the gussets. At the same time, with respect to embodiments of the current invention, the bond of the front ply of a bag is not increased in strength by the extension of the gussets into the tab region, such that the front ply may continue to be pulled forward upon removal of a preceding bag from the stack. Thus, the present invention may provide a better self-opening feature in a bag stack with a tab and bags with one or more gussets.

Bags and bag stacks of the present invention may be made using any conventional techniques known in the art, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,788 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,580, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. In addition, as indicated above, bag materials used to make tabs may have the same composition as the underlying bag to which the tab is applied. Suitable bag materials bag may include any polymeric materials, including polyolefins. By way of example, and without limitation, bag materials may include polyethylenes such as linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), high molecular weight high density polyethylene (HMW-HDPE), and combinations thereof. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that other materials may be suitable, such as other thermoplastic materials, including copolymers.

Although the foregoing examples are shown with respect to T-shirt bags, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the invention may also be used on other types of bags, such as, but not limited to, produce bags in a stack, produce bags on a roll, shopping bags on a roll, and other bag types. In addition, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that although the preceding examples in the context of a detachable tab, gussets extending into integral and nondetachable tabs are also within the scope of the present invention.

The foregoing description of illustrative embodiments of the invention has been presented only for the purpose of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Numerous modifications and adaptations thereof will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find utility in applications differing from the types described. While the invention has been illustrated and described in the general context of mixing in wastewater treatment systems and processes, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown since various modifications and substitutions can be made without departing in any way from the spirit and scope of the present invention. As such, further modifications and equivalents of the invention herein disclosed may occur to persons skilled in the art using no more than routine experimentation, and all such modifications and equivalents are believed to be within the spirit and scope of the invention as described herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A bag comprising: two exterior faces, an open mouth end defined by the exterior faces, a sealed bottom end joining the exterior faces, at least one gusset extending between the mouth end and the sealed bottom end, and at least one tab located in a tab region at the mouth end, wherein at least one gusset extends into the tab region.
 2. The bag of claim 1 wherein the bag is a T-shirt bag having handles.
 3. The bag of claim 1 wherein the bag comprises at least two gussets, wherein each gusset extends into the tab region.
 4. The bag of claim 3 wherein each gusset extend at least 25% into the width of the tab.
 5. The bag of claim 3 wherein each of the two gussets extends substantially to a mid-point of the tab.
 6. The bag of claim 3 wherein the at least two gussets overlap.
 7. The bag of claim 1 wherein the tab is an integral, nondetachable tab.
 8. The bag of claim 1 wherein the tab is a detachable tab.
 9. The bag of claim 1 wherein the bag combined with a plurality of other bags to form a bag stack. 